Government readies plan for $6-B North-South Commuter Rail project

Aside from the construction of the country’s first subway system, residents of Metro Manila can soon expect the building of a new rail facility that will transport commuters from Malolos, Bulacan in the north to Calamba, Laguna in the south.

This as the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) prepares to present the $6-billion North-South Commuter Rail (NSCR) to the National Economic and Development Authority’s (NEDA) for its approval, after which the project will be bid out to private proponents under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program.

 
Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has already finished its feasibility study for the NSCR, which is an 89.7-kilometer mass transport system that will run along the Philippine National Railways (PNR) State-owned tracks.

“We are already going up to NEDA. The NCSR is already scheduled for presentation to the next NEDA Investment Coordination Committee meeting,” he told the Manila Bulletin.

Due to the huge investment requirement of the NSCR, Abaya said the project will be offered in two components: The Malolos-Tutuban section and the Tutuban-Calamba portion.

“JICA is interested to fund the Malolos-Tutuban component through an official development assistance loan. Meanwhile, the Tutuban-Calamba component will be offered through a public-private partnership,” he disclosed.

Abaya said the Malolos-Tutuban section of the NSCR will be elevated while the Tutuban-Calamba portion will be semi-elevated, with some underground and at-grade sections.

“What is clear is that Malolos to Tutuban will be elevated. Tutuban to Calamba will be at grade in the meantime but we are aiming to elevate it eventually the road,” he said.

The official said the NSCR will include rehabilitation of the existing tracks, reinforcement of the rail line’s foundation, and double-tracking up to Calamba.

“Once the rails are steady enough to accommodate freight, cargo containers can pass through the rails instead of the roads. Cargo movers will only have to pay for rail usage,” Abaya pointed out.

It is not immediately clear if the provision of rolling stock is included in the NSCR but Abaya admitted that there is a need to augment the existing fleet of the PNR.

Like the NSCR, the $3-billion Mass Transit System Loop (MTSL) – a 12-kilometer underground railway that will link the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig to the Central Business District of Makati City, and the SM Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City—will be presented to the NEDA upon the finalization of its route. But unlike the NSCR and the MTSL, the feasibility study on DOTC’s grand plan to extend the PNR’s interprovincial operation up to Matnog Port in Sorsogon is not yet finished. The P271-billion “Integrated Luzon Railway Project” is seen to revive the PNR’s operation to La Union up north and to Albay down south and extend it further to Sorsogon.